100% attendance

[AgainstTheOddsNo2]

My daughter has just been sick and is currently devastated and not talking to me because I said she will have to stay home from school and lose her 100% attendance.

Fuck that prize!

Many awards given out by schools - those for academic, sporting, artistic and musical ability are also for things beyond the pupils' control with some standing no chance of getting them. Should we also ban those? I never got any sort of award when I was at school, but if there had have been an attendance one I might have got that a couple of times

If the only thing your teachers can find "good" to say about you is that you showed up why would you want a reward from them.

There should be something they can say about a child. Reward kindness or effort or enthusiasm or being helpful etc which is not dependant on results/scores. There must be something every child is recognised for?

Attendance is like the American year book comment "have a nice summer" something generic which shows that basically you were invisible the whole time...

What a lovely school

I would like my child to become the kind of adult who is known for being thoughtful, helpful, nice to work with and a good friend. I would take no pride in knowing that she's someone who turns up for work no matter how crap she's feeling. in fact, I would hate her to turn into that kind of annoying martyr. What exactly do rewards like this teach children? Nothing useful, that's what.

It is standard school policy, implemented by nearly every school in the country

Yes, and that standard policy is stupid, discriminatory, counter productive and downright idiotic. (In other words a perfectly normal Tory-era education policy).

At our school its not just a certificate for 100% attendance. Those who are lucky enough not to catch the half dozen vomiting bugs that do the rounds from October to March get to go to a party at the end of the year.

No matter how much you try to build up their resilience primary aged children are going to get upset at missing a party because they were ill. My ds was vomiting all night and getting upset that he'd not be allowed to go to the party, he was 5 and didn't care that it was an almost impossible target, he just wanted to go to a party.

It's the parents who care that keep their children off school when they're too ill to go in. It's not being a caring parent to send your children to school when they've been vomiting all night just so they keep their attendance up or it's world book day and they've bought a costume.

It should either be totally scrapped or lowered to 96% to allow for illness and medical appointments shouldn't count as an absence.

ChaiTeaTaiChi:

I think there are arguments for it, personally. As I say I can see why people object but I don't think it's cut and dried.

What are the arguments for it?

Feckless parents who don't give a damn won't give a damn.
Decent parent keep kids off for illness etc when they shouldn't BE in school

And I don't. And I like to think you might change your mind if you'd ever had the conversation I had with my DC about why their classmates got a party and treats while they didn't, featuring such ideas as "yes I know its not fair that you get a chronic, debilitating illness that regularly necessitates hospital stays with painful procedures and they don't, and then because of that you also get barred from their party. Teaches you resilience though, doesn't it?"

And do those arguments are? Kids are germ magnets! Penalising them for being kids and getting childhood illnesses (cpox for example) or Noro, especially when there is no attempt to get the children to practice any kind of hygene is frankly ridiculous. We have been very lucky? That most of dd's illnesses have fallen at the start of holidays- generally after she has come a a bit worn down by the term and her immune system has given up, and she has had plenty of time to recover.

What are the arguments for it, though?

If it could be done in a way that clearly distinguished between staying at home for trivial reasons, and staying at home because it was the best and right thing to do, then there might be an argument for it.

But just penalising all children who take even one day off, no matter how ill they are, is pointless, stupid and unfair.

That's absolutely disgusting. Effectively punishing children who have been ill and rewarding kids who have probably been ill and their parents sent them anyway. We have a really naff certificate and having got a couple i now purposely take my kids out for a dental appointment once a year. They are not sickly kids at all but i feel really strongly about this point as a nurse it's the last thing anyone needs let alone children. Maybe its to prepare them for zero hours contracts where there is a fine for being ill.

I think it is feeding into this horrible modern culture at work where leaving on time, taking sick leave when you're not well or needing time off now and again for a medical appointment marks people out as 'losers'; and where hard won employment rights are gradually being eroded.

It's not teaching kids a good lesson. 'You get to go to a party because you came to school even though you had a sore throat. Ben doesn't get to go because he's a wimp who stayed at home when he had the vomitting bug'.

Awful.

What encouragement is there for a child who catches a vomiting bug in September to attend for the rest of the year, given that their chances at a certificate/prize/full on bloody party are already gone? Why would that make them wake up in March and think 'you know what, I feel a bit rubbish, but I really must go in'?

Its the logic that I find frustrating. You wouldnt get away with it as an exam answer

What is the purpose of rewarding 100% attendance?
To encourage and improve attendance.
How does it do this?
By encouraging you to send your child to school when sick and passing it around - worse attendance
By encouraging those parents who dont give a shit to suddenly care that their child gets a certificate - no change
By making those who suffer longterm health conditions feel guilty and 'naughty' for not being able to achieve this target or a figure of resentment if its a class reward - no change and bad example to set.

Utter bollocks and am so glad Ds ('unlucky' enough to have a condition requiring regular hospital treatment and a compromised immunesystem) has supportive friends who dont take it out on him.

Yes to the wimp comment user. The amount of times I've heard parents proudly trot out the 'my child is as strong as an ox' 'stomach of steel' 'brilliant immune system' like its some sort of badge of honour that they've had some involvement in. Usually just after theyve asked how Ds is and how his treatment is going, like he is in some way weak or inferior
Or maybe am just oversensitive but it does make me think, Well, bully for you and your very healthy child.

Most of the kids at our school don't know or care about attendance awards. Maybe you could help your DD by playing down the whole attendance thing.
It's only important to the HT. Nobody else gives a toss.

We recently had an issue with this. My DS (6yo) had chicken pox and missed 5 days of school so at the end of last term all his friends got to stand up in assembly, get clapped and cheered and were given an Easter egg as a prize for attendance.

He attends a school with very good attendance rate so nearly all of the children get a prize.

He couldn't have attended school when he had chicken pox. They made it very clear they didn't want him in. He was gutted to be off school because he loves it. He was bored and miserable at home for a week and he wasn't even particularly ill, just spotty. So when it came to the attendance assembly he felt like he was being punished again. He cried all the way home that day and I felt awful that he seemed to have been singled out and reprimanded for being ill.

I don't even actually see the point of these awards. For most primary school aged children it is not their choice whether they go to school or not, it is down to the parents.

Most of the kids at our school don't know or care about attendance awards.

I wish that was the case at my DC's school; the ones with 100% get taken out on a free school trip to a theme park in June. My DCs have got no chance of ever going because of their health issues; they get to stay at school and do normal lessons whilst the others are at the theme park

corythatwas, that is awful and shows that the whole thing is ridiculous. I hope your son is doing OK, it is hard enough to cope with health issues without being made to feel you are at fault in some way and awful for parents watching a child suffer to have that made worse by a bloody stupid rule.

If my kids were at a school where a big deal was made about parties/film shoes/ice creams etc then they wouldn't be going to school that day whether they were going to get a reward or not. If all parents boycotted these things they would stop as every child being absent that day would really bugger up the attendance rates.

I am in two minds about this. My dd has 100% attendance and I am proud of that fact, and have let her know this to reinforce that it is a positive thing. However I recognise that we are just lucky in that she is never ill it seems. She also loves school which helps.

I think it is good to instill a good work ethic into kids - my mum drilled it into me and now I would never "throw" a sicky, unless it is for genuine illness.

However maybe use this is an opportunity to instill that attendance is important, but if you are vomiting you are at risk of passing on germs to other people, so it is the responsible thing to do. That way she still feels a sense of pride that she is doing the right thing?

Why don't you do her a little certificate and prize for doing the responsible thing by staying off and being responsible for not passing on her germs? Explain to her about the 48hr rule?

Rule in my house is fevers and d&v means day off. Everything else goes in, but tbh dd would always rather go in than not anyway as she is a bit of a teachers pet! 😂

On DD's first week in secondary, they had a big assembly including
being told about the boy who had just left the school after never missing a day for 5 years (he'd earned some kind of reward to do with the leavers' prom, I think).

DD had had Day 2 off for being sick before even making it to the Motivational Speeches, so, as she came home and said, 'Might as well give up on that one right now.'

FlyingSquid, don't blame her. What a message to give her. I hope she realises it is rubbish as she is probably more mature than whoever thought this up.

I know sometimes people don't have much choice, but I'd move heaven & earth to avoid sending a child to a school that puts on bouncy castles & ice creams (etc) for 100% attendance.

It is punitive to the children who are the ones MOST likely to need support, to feel good about themselves & to get a treat.

Primary aged children have no control over their attendance, to reward or punish them for illness, disability, sn or their parents choices is just awful and I wouldn't trust trust the pastoral care of the school.

It's all very well telling kids what BS it is, but they're still the ones missing out through no fault of their own.

As for the school(s) making it a class thing. Fucking hell. That's diabolical. They should be teaching children to build friendships, to care for each other, to look out for those who have greater needs - not setting them up tomtearveach other apart. This really, really pisses me off and upsets me. No, just no.

Honestly, I love our school, but reading threads like this REALLY makes me appreciate just how great they are.

Oh, she's not too worried. I think she treats much of school as material for her first novel anyway (or possibly stand-up comedy show).

My son got an award for "excellent" attendance. This is far better than the 100% award.